The Longest Post in the World.

Hello friends. It's been a while. I don't know how any of you with three kids have any time to do ANYTHING. Maybe it's just a baby thing. I hope it's just a baby thing because I seriously can't find the time to do anything that isn't kids or cleaning or cooking!

Aaron told me to stop posting pictures because no one will read it if it's too long. Well, it is long. But don't worry, I'm not putting in much text so pretend it's a picture book.

In July my side of the family had a reunion at Lake Siskyou in Northern California.

Nana and Grandpa Duck playing with 9 out of the 11 grandkids.

The kids were really into catching these enormous bullfrog tadpoles. Hence the hand in the bucket. They didn't usually survive after being handled by little kids ;)

Brett and Luke tadpole hunting.

Besides hanging out at the lake, we visited the head-quarters of the Sacramento river. It comes out of the bottom of a hill!

My brothers and their wives. And one baby. Twelve of us are missing, not counting Nana and Grandpa Duck.

Search drinking the water. People come and fill huge water bottles with this water because it's so pure and tasty! Oh, and it's free.

There is a Great Grandma behind these three chunks!

The cute photogenic girl cousins :) They actually like to have their picture taken. Imagine that!

Gone fishin'.

Cutie boy.

I guess the older kids got a little bored :)

But the younger kids were just fine.

Some of us did some caving. I mean spelunking to be exact.

My bro Jake and his family. I didn't have a pic of Dave and his family. They just left for Germany for three years! We'll miss them lots :(

A rare family picture!
Three cousins.

Five cousins.

Dad and kid.

Huh? What's going on here? What's up cuz?

Grandpa Duck fishing in the drift boat with two of his grandkids.

We rented a patio boat one day and did some jumping and diving!

And floating around...

This is how Baby B spend his time at the lake. Happy as a... uh... crawdad.

The kids probably caught at least a hundred little frogs. They were everywhere!

Search and Destroy even learned how to kayak all by themselves!

but it's much more fun with a cousin in the boat!

Next post... going to Chico to visit Aaron's fam. All car trips should involve getting kicked in the face by your baby brother while trying to sleep. Take that!

The end. 32 pictures. Good night.

We've been...

...just trying to survive. And not even doing very well at that. Search got in a bike accident yesterday and ended up with a broken hand, a fat lip, a loose tooth and a gnarly looking face. Yes, being the blogger that I am, I took a picture before we cleaned him up. Aaron said I was, what was the word? Oh yes. Sadistic. I can't help but agree I guess. Bad Mom.So here's what happened: Aaron took the two boys on a bike ride. He and Search were racing and Search was gaining on Dad but looking back at Destroy. Meanwhile, looking behind him, he got into a fight with a parked car. The car won. He flew forward off his bike and got into fight #2 with the road. The road won. Luckily he had his helmet on... it must have slid up after the initial impact. Poor kid. I just hope he still wants to ride his bike.

He looks much better today and is much happier. Although the most traumatizing part of the whole experience for him was having to wear the dreaded arm brace. He was so mad about wearing it that he opted out of getting ice cream on the way home from X-rays and wouldn't stop screaming. He locked himself in a room (to which we conveniently don't have a key) and promptly fell asleep. But we had to get in there (you know because he could be comatose from hitting his head) so we took the doorknob off. Love being married to a medical guy :)

Now he's ok with the brace because we call it his "blaster" and he pretends to shoot bullets out of it.

Destroy took pictures like an annoying reporter.

We've also been creatively making Spider-Man's webs with thread from Mom's sewing machine.
Ok, Mom had nothing to do with that.

Here's Spider-Man's leg jammed into the top dresser drawer holding the web for all the other Spider-Men. And animals.

It was too funny to just clean up. I had to take pictures first. And lucky you, you get to enjoy them :)
We've also been stealing Mom's camera and taking random pictures.

"Look Mom, I got my hand and my foot!"

Creatively celebrating. I can't take the credit for this idea. It was all Stacey. The kids loved decorating their own cupcakes.

Complete with those little spinner thingys.

Isn't she the cutest? Where's the pic of Olivia???

We've also been getting haircuts. Some turning out better than others. Mine was a not-so-better. It's ok now though. I'll spare you the pictures of mine.

THE MULLET: now you see it.

Now you don't. Now we're not as white trash.Look at those neck rolls! I can't keep this kid from stinking because those neck rolls grow cheese. And I'm pretty sure the neck cheese grows mold.

Every baby needs a pair of sweet slip-ons with whales on them. Look at me I'm standing!

And then I fell so I'm crying. Bad Mom.

We've been really tired.

We've been swimming in our new pool!

We've been bumbo-ing.

And being a third child. Dumped wherever is convenient. Good thing we're so easy going, or at least one of us is :)

We've started learning how to play the piano. With mix feelings.

And playing outside ALL THE TIME. Even when it's raining. Because even superheros have to save lives in the rain too.

And now we're getting ready to go on vacay! And we're all going! West coast here we come!

SSSSSSoccer!

As the first real organized sport the boys have participated in, we decided to try out soccer. It's been fun to watch. Destroy surprised us by actually wanting to participate in something. He's actually excited to play soccer. Most likely because it provides him another social opportunity where he has lots of ears to talk off. Either that, or because he gets snacks. He's quick.


But pretty small so he gets knocked down a lot.

It's fun watching the kids learn that they can't use their hands. Only on throw-ins.

Search surprised us by having a not-so-enthusiastic attitude. He was super excited for the first couple of games but then decided that he didn't like the competition so much.

At this age, there's only a couple of kids on each team that even go near the ball. All the others are too scared or not interested. Search happened to be one of the two on his team who was aggressive. But if at any point in the game, the other team showed opposition, he was done. Sometimes mommy would get out there and run with him just to get him out on the field.

He had fun too but I think we had more fun watching him. He's a bit clumsy and awkward and we'd try not to laugh. Maybe it's his big noggin that throws him off balance.

They have one more game and then they get the long-awaited trophies.

chatterbox

Our precious baby is a chatterbox. And when he talks too much... he gets the hiccups!

And this is what happens when your 4 yo gets ahold of the camera. AND your forget to take it out of video mode.

And for your viewing pleasure, I DID NOT include the video that afore-mentioned 4 yo took of his mother's behind.

For Posterity's Sake: Take 2

Okay, definitely not as cool as what BFF Gardener can do, but still cool.

Now if I could only do it without peeing my pants. Those dern kids!

Pre-K Graduation? What's next?

Destroy had pre-K graduation a couple of weeks ago.

Search's class did a couple of songs. Which were hilarious I might add because it required them to turn around and shake what their momma gave 'em at the audience. I had no idea kids could be so different in this aspect. Two just stood there, one slightly swayed side to side, one shook all he had and then Search, since he doesn't know how to shake his bum, just shakes his elbows up and down as furiously as he can while slouched over while keeping his behind completely still. Destroy's class then put on their class play after singing a whole lot of songs. Destroy was the lead frog in their "froggy play".

He was thrilled to be the lead because he got the rights from the teacher to boss the other frogs around because they (just tadpoles) had to listen to him and follow him around. The kids ONLY consented to following his instructions while on stage.

Last came the graduation ceremony. Who knew that they made caps and gowns for 4 and 5 year olds? Not me! It was a pretty big deal I guess but super cute.

While the graduation song played (I know I should know the name of it but I don't), each kid walked across the stage and received their "diploma" and a balloon. While they walked and their name was announced, a big picture of them, their name and what they wanted to be when they grow up was projected up onto the wall above them. Destroy is a "policeman in the making". Again, just another way for him to boss people around. Do you get the idea that he likes to be bossy??? We are working on this :)

After everyone was across the stage, instead of throwing their hats, they all let their balloons go at the same time. This was pretty hard for some of those little kids to do and left some of them in tears! But they all did it.

Destroy got a couple of pictures with his friends.
All his friends are girls.

Ladies' man. A bossy one, but a ladies' man.And luckily he's not too cool yet to snap a shot with his mom and pop.

This pre-K graduation was about as long as my high school graduation. No joke. But I loved every minute of it because I got to see what my kids had been working on for the last couple of months!